


Curiosity

by Nunonabun



Category: Call the Midwife
Genre: Accidental Voyeurism, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-28
Updated: 2018-04-28
Packaged: 2019-04-28 20:07:12
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,224
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14456769
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nunonabun/pseuds/Nunonabun
Summary: "Anonymous asked: If you have some time, mind jotting me a number 20 or a good and smutty #25?"I did 25 earlier, but I decided to also do 20. In this little fic, Barbara oversees something rather interesting one day after clinic.





	Curiosity

Clinic had long since finished, and all the others were settled in cozily at Nonnatus for tea. As she stepped out into the overcast, windy late afternoon, Barbara cursed herself for forgetting her scarf and having to loop back to the community centre. She was already a bit all over the place at the best of times, if she was being honest with herself, but the frantic preparations for her wedding two weeks from now seemed to be enhancing that aspect of her. She unlocked the community centre, thankful that she’d at least remembered to get the key from Sister Julienne before setting out.

A soft moan froze her in place. Was there someone in here? Her immediate thought was that it might be a girl who was trying to hide that she was in labour. It wouldn’t be unheard of. If she’d managed to keep it from her family and didn’t want any record of it, it made sense that she would come, after hours, to the place the whole community knew as a part-time maternity clinic. But how had she gotten in?  Barbara tiptoed in, shutting the door quietly. She wanted to find the girl, but bumbling about might scare her.

A clearly male groan stopped that theory - and Barbara herself - in its tracks just as she laid eyes on the origin - or origins, rather - of the alarming sounds. Dr. Turner was standing in front of the counter. He was breathing hard and seemed to be pressing his hips against it. Barbara was briefly baffled at this strange scene before she noticed a pair of shapely legs wrapped around his waist. She ducked automatically, hoping that his partner - Shelagh, it must be - hadn’t seen her. Given the continued noises to her left, she guessed she hadn’t been discovered.

Heart racing at the situation she had managed to stumble into, she tried to gather her thoughts. Would they hear her if she tried to sneak out? They hadn’t heard her coming in, but what if they had just ignored the first sound and caught sight of her at the second? That would be terribly embarrassing for all of them. Perhaps she should just try to grab her scarf and leave. Or should she wait them out? But that seemed such an intrusion. She really ought to leave a private activity private, even if she was coming to realize that she didn’t quite want to. She shook the thought off.  

Barbara crept around the side of the half-wall and caught sight of the elusive scrap of outerwear draped over the back of the chair just beside the kitchen entrance. If she went to collect it, they would surely spot her. She would definitely have to wait them out now. Unsettlingly, the thought sent little butterflies aflutter in her stomach. Planning her wedding ceremony was top of her mind, but the wedding night was a close and anxious second. None of her other friends were married, and even if Phyllis had had at least one fling during the war, Barbara would never be able to work up the courage to ask her dear friend about something so intimate. She felt sure Phyllis had already disclosed all she was willing to reveal about that event.

She rose to a crouch, so that her eyes were just peeking over the wall cut-out. Dr. Turner’s trousers and pants were around his ankles, and Shelagh’s skirt was pushed up. He held her tightly around the waist, her arms clutching his hips; their foreheads pressed together as they joined again and again. They seemed entirely lost in one another. Or perhaps found. Was that what it was to come together physically when you loved the other person? To stop being just yourself? She’d heard talk at clinic of course, but it was usually joking and Barbara didn’t know quite what to make of it.

Dr. Turner kissed along his wife’s jaw and murmured something in her ear that made her gasp. She took hold of the sides of his face, pulling his lips to hers to kiss him passionately. Shelagh’s hands had descended to grasp Dr. Turner’s bottom, cupping his rather well-shaped rear and pulling him more forcefully against her. Barbara’s heart beat faster. What little she did know - beyond the simple mechanics she’d learned in nursing school - was that the woman was generally passive. She’d considered that this might not quite be true, but she’d never actually seen it. All of the women in films tended to acquiesce to their lovers’ kisses, not initiate or spur anything on.

Yet Dr. Turner seemed excited by his wife's enthusiasm, picking up the pace of his thrusts even as he maintained their kiss. He seemed eager to touch her as well, one of his hands roving up under his wife’s shirt to find the corresponding breast, seemingly massaging it in a way that - judging from the sounds Shelagh was making - she quite enjoyed.

Shelagh’s legs abruptly tensed around her husband and she moaned his name, her eyes falling closed as she let what Barbara assumed must be her, er,  _completion_  wash over her. Though she hadn’t noticed Dr. Turner reach a similar state, he stopped moving at this point, simply holding Shelagh in place, his eyes - from what Barbara could see - drinking in the expression on his love’s face. At last Shelagh opened her eyes, reaching up to place a soft kiss on his lips. This seemed to mean something more for them, as he kissed her again in reply and resumed his movements, rocking against her gently a few times before thrusting again in earnest. Once, twice, three times and then he too released a strangled sound of pleasure. His knees shook but he managed to remain upright, Shelagh keeping him in a firm embrace, an expression of pure joy brightening her face as he shuddered in her arms. They drew back, exchanging kisses once more. They lingered longer this time, showering each other’s faces with gentle affection, as if soothing the heat that they had just sated.

Barbara realized she’d been so caught up in observing them she’d forgotten where she was. She ducked down once more and silently scurried over to one of the curtained exam beds. A maelstrom of thoughts and feelings swirled around her mind as she quietly climbed onto one of the beds, waiting for the sounds of their departure.

She felt slightly guilty for spying on them, but she couldn’t quite regret it. If anyone asked her, she wasn’t sure she’d be able to explain it, but somehow she felt she understood something now she’d only been able to guess at before. Though the nerves about her wedding night were still there a bit, she felt a calm about it that she certainly hadn’t felt before.

The soft snick of the door was her signal to hop off the bed and hurry over to snatch up her scarf. She peeped out the door, noting with relief the green MG already making its way down the street. What she’d seen between the couple was playing over and over in her head, and as Barbara gathered her bicycle and set off, she sent up a small prayer that nobody at Nonnatus would see her face and guess at the thoughts it held, as they so often did.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! As this /was/ meant to be seen, comments are entirely appropriate and even welcomed ;)


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